Evacuating your home 101 – What you will learn

(If you jumped into this series on this post, you’ll want to head back to the beginning so it makes sense. The first post in the series can be found here, then follow the links for the rest of the series.)

The Evacuation plan that you’ll see in this series, will do the following:

It will go beyond the 72 hour kit, but fall short of taking the whole house. Save what you can save with a modest and reasonable investment and let the rest go. Anything not ready to go, stays. Anything that takes two people to load, is fragile, requires special padding or handling, problem-solving, or tying down stays. Keeping in mind that you can always change your mind later if the nature of the event allows that luxury.

Separate high value things from low (monetary or sentimental), and focus on the high-value items. You should consider the post-event value, rather than the value they have now.

Assess the volume and weight capacity of your present vehicle, and take that as the scale of your evacuation. Aim to fill your vehicle’s space in the most time-efficient way. Do not overload. Through mental rehearsal and some hand’s on practice, identify obstacles to the evacuation in general, and the loading process in particular, and eliminate them.

Use serialized (numbered) containers to organize your high-value possessions into modules by subject (remember that high-value post event, could mean something that helps you survive). We will call these modules, “boxes”, but items can be housed in any kind of container that meets the guidelines. This is the heart and essence of the plan.

Whether preparing, upgrading, or loading, always deal with one module or box at a time, in its order. The order of the boxes is the order of their importance. Preparing one box at a time makes the job bite-sized. Loading each box in its order means that if you get interrupted , or if you run out of time, the most important things will already be on board.

When the alarm sounds and the evacuation has begun, load the ‘boxes’ in sequential order until

a ) you have to leave, or

b ) the vehicle is full (remember to leave room for the people), or

c ) all the boxes are in place.

In the next post we’ll tackle some things you should consider when implementing this plan.

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Welcome to I Get Ready.com! Here you'll learn ways that you and your family can be more prepared and ready for anything life can throw your way. My name is Andrea and I'm here to walk you through it. Glad you made it. [Read More …]